I have seen the future, and we will be replaced by gigantic tardigrades!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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From Wired: Invertebrate Astronauts Make Space History (By Brandon Keim, 8 September 2008)

The tardigrade (aka water bear): an eight-legged invertebrate invisible to the naked eye, with claws and eyes. See the cute picture in the Wired article. In an anhydrobiotic state, they can survive vacuums, starvation, dessication and temperatures above 300 degrees Fahrenheit and below minus 240 degrees Fahrenheit: the perfect candidate to be an animal astronaut! (tardigradesinspace.blogspot.com) As part of the experiment some were exposed to low-level cosmic radiation, and others to both cosmic and unfiltered solar radiation. All were exposed to the frigid vacuum of space. Those exposed to cosmic radiation reproduced as well as an unexposed control group. The group exposed to unfiltered solar radiation did not do so well but even some of these survived.

So despite all the catastrophes that might decimate other more delicate species, we can safely assume that life will go on, and the meek tardigrades will inherit the earth! (along some super-strong bacteria also mentioned in the article)

Full article here:
Current Biology, Vol 18, R729-R731, 09 September 2008
Tardigrades survive exposure to space in low Earth orbit
by
K. Ingemar Jönsson (Department of Mathematics and Science, Aquatic Biology and Chemistry Group, Kristianstad University, SE-291 88 Kristianstad, Sweden)
Elke Rabbow (Institute of Aerospace Medicine, Radiation Biology Division, DLR, Linder Höhe, 51147 Köln, Germany)
Ralph O. Schill (Department of Zoology, Biological Institute, Universität Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 57, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany)
Mats Harms-Ringdahl (Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Toxicology, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden)
and Petra Rettberg (Institute of Aerospace Medicine, Radiation Biology Division, DLR, Linder Höhe, 51147 Köln, Germany)

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It’s…unexpected…that an invertebrate would be cute, but it is!:slight_smile:

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I for one would like to welcome…

No, I can’t finish it! :smiley:

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Anyone else think that “tardigrade” ought to be an adjective along the lines of “retrograde”?

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Given the rising tide of anti-intellectualism in the US, I’d say the 'tards have already taken over.

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Oddly cute. The kind of cute that you expect to turn on you later.

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I was just reading about these little guys the other day. Yeah, they’re basically indestructible. Boil 'em, they laugh. Irradiate 'em, they giggle like the Pillsbury Doughboy. Freeze 'em down to 1 degree above absolute zero, and… well, they don’t do much at that point. But thaw 'em out again and they’re fine afterward.

" yawn Oh sorry, must have nodded off when my organs cooled to superconducting temperature and all molecular motion ceased. Please, go on with your story."

Honestly, with qualities like that, it’s kind of hard to understand why they aren’t in charge already. Here’s a more or less unkillable organism, which can thrive anywhere on the planet (or in the radiation-bombarded vacuum of space, as it turns out), and yet they do absolutely nothing. Apparently they’re such slackers that they don’t even carry disease. They’re like the evolutionary equivalent of chess prodigies, except cuter.

What’s your deal, tardigrades? What the hell are you waiting for, you freaky little koala-looking bastards? DO SOMETHING.

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Make that “visible to the naked eye”. Some of them are over a millimeter long. Yes, remarkable animals.